Career high ... Manilow performing before the Grammys last week. Photograph: Chris Carlson/APBarry Manilow hit the nail on the head last week when he said: "I swear, if you live long enough, anything is possible."

That was his reaction to the triumphant success of his new album, The Greatest Songs of the Fifties, which recently entered the American chart at number one. It's the first time the veteran croonster has topped the US chart since 1977, and, considering that his last album peaked at 47 in 2004, he probably had no expectation of ever doing so again.

Having stuck it out to 59, Manilow can now enjoy a chortle at the expense of infants like Eminem (currently way down the top 10), who once wrote a song about technomeister Moby, then 36, being "too old".

But maybe the Bazza is actually part of a mini-trend (otherwise known as a coincidence)?

Yes, old guys are having big hits again, decades after their last ones. Yesterday, Leo Sayer, 57, debuted at the top of the UK singles chart for the first time since 1977. And in 2004, Rod Stewart's American Songbook Vol 3 was the venerable blonde-botherer's first US chart-topper in a quarter of a century.

It's easy to understand the appeal, in post-9/11 America, of comforting classics that recall simpler times. Americans have always held pop standards dear to their hearts, and they clearly believe that Manilow and Stewart - chaps who are the same age as the tunes they're covering - are doing right by them. The proximity of Valentine's Day, too, hasn't hurt Manilow's collection of Happy Days-era hits, which includes chestnuts like Unchained Melody and Beyond the Sea.

You can hardly begrudge them their moment of glory. (Well, you can begrudge Stewart, whose ludicrous haircut and love-life amount to conduct unbecoming a third-ager.) In the case of Manilow, a songwriter of repute who's perpetually the target of undeserved abuse, you can even share his delight. Even if, er, he didn't write any of the songs on the album. Like Sayer and another late-returner, Tom Jones, he's reaping the rewards of being who he is.

And maybe next time he tours here, his middle-aged following of "Maniloonies" and "Fanilows" may be joined by a few young, blushing pleasure-seekers.